This beautiful wall calendar features photographs and artwork from silent films and the film industry, provided to me by generous collectors.

This year, the theme is "Music is half the picture." Particular thanks to Robert Arkus, the George Eastman Museum, and Bruce Calvert for an intriguing collection of publicity stills and behind-the-scenes photos of musicians at work in the movie business.

All proceeds of the calendar sales will go to silent film restoration. More details at the web page.

You had me at the cover image, Rodney. I have never seen that great still from Sherlock, Jr. before.

Ooh! Then I can guarantee you that you also haven't seen the (somewhat overlapping) shot for January, from the same film, but showing more musicians. Tease, tease. Thanks to the George Eastman Museum for both of these.

The January photo, like the cover photo, doesn't appear in the released film.

In fact, with this photo of Buster in Sherlock Jr. costume playing piano with Kathryn McGuire, plus one of him in the same costume lounging on a tiger-skin rug, plus one of Buster in projectionist costume sitting in a pile of jumbled film, plus one of Buster at the ticket booth trying to buy a ticket, I'm not aware of any other silent film with more publicity stills that are NOT from the actual film as released. I suppose that's a lesson for people trying to reconstruct lost films from the surviving stills...

Rodney Sauer
The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
www.mont-alto.com"Let the Music do the Talking!"

CORRECTION: The supplier of the Phantom of the Opera (April) and Napoleon (July) photos was misidentified in the captions. Both of those photos were supplied by David Welling. I greatly regret the error.

Rodney Sauer
The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
www.mont-alto.com"Let the Music do the Talking!"

Due to a request for a bulk purchase, I've added a button to buy 8 calendars for $80 plus postage. I tried to see if I could set up an automatic price drop at a certain quantity, but that proved too much for the Paypal button codes (or for my ability to figure out how they work...).

If you want eight, buy ONE set of eight calendars and you'll get the discount. (Don't say you want eight, or you'll be ordering 64 calendars.) If you want a different large quantity, send me an email and I'll change the bulk button so that you can place the order your want.

Thanks for you support! I've already sold 59, so the printing costs are covered.

Rodney Sauer
The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
www.mont-alto.com"Let the Music do the Talking!"

It looks great! I mean, it would look great. If I had bought one as a gift for my wife. Which I'm not saying I have. Just because I have for like 10 years or more now. And because there's a suspiciously flat package already out there.

“Sentimentality is when it doesn't come off—when it does, you get a true expression of life's sorrows.” —Alain-Fournier